The present invention relates to an optical collector including an optical input for incoupling light from multiple incoming optical waveguides into the collector and an optical output for outcoupling light from the collector into an outgoing optical waveguide. The present invention also relates to a photo-optical device including the optical collector.
It is known to funnel optical waveguides by applying special techniques. But this is mostly limited to very few optical waveguides to be funneled and is technically complex. Moreover, the cross sections of the funneled waveguides are limited and are subject to narrow restrictions concerning the outgoing optical waveguide, since even the cross section of the outgoing optical waveguide cannot be any size. Furthermore, optical waveguides shall be funneled with the light loss in the connection area being as small as possible. On the other hand, there is a need for extending the possibilities for the connection of multiple optical waveguides, thus opening also new application areas.